"Vi kanske kommer igen, om det låser sig". Kvinnors och mäns möte med familjerådgivning.

This dissertation is the result of an evaluation of family counselling (FC) in a middle-sized city in Sweden. The findings support results from earlier studies of family counselling which indicate that people have a positive attitude to counselling. But this finding led to questions that remained unanswered in earlier research. What is it particularly in FC treatment that brings about a result, which invokes a positive attitude? What social conditions are included in the meetings between FC and men and women availing themselves of FC’s services, which contribute to positive results? My purpose in this dissertation has been to study and understand the levels where the points of contact appear between the efforts of women and men to solve their relationship problems and conflicts and the therapeutical work of FC and how points of contact are related to each other. Three social logics within the rationality of modern society converge within the points of contact: the normative ideal of society as a social project, the scientific and technical rationality of the therapeutical work, and the practical rationality of the persons that take contact with FC. The social and cognitive conditions that constitute structures and mechanisms of power in modern society affect the material conditions and the psychosocial conditions of the organization of life together. When the material and psychosocial conditions among couples with problems are impacted, the need for change arises. It is the conditions that directly and practically affect everyday life within the practical life spheres that a couple by themselves try to change. In spite of the fact that the conflicts in these spheres constitute a clear pattern beyond the conflicts and crisis among those who turn to FC, it is not these aspects, beyond the immediate conflict, persons want help with. When the conflicts lead to crisis the subjective psychosocial conditions appear as a lack of meaning in the relationship, as a lack of understanding of reality, and a lack of control of one’s own life or of life together. It is the need for change, of, or re-establishment of these psychosocial conditions that lead some people to contact FC. It is on this psychosocial level that therapeutical work within the FCs activities treat persons’ aim to re-establish a functional life. The results of the therapeutical treatment are clearly positive. This does not mean that the results of the treatment can break the structures and mechanisms of power on which the conflict arose. In some cases it can mean the reinforcement of the hidden or potential power that legitimates structural situations. Since it is on the psychosocial level that the therapeutical treatment works, the main power structure within the couple’s relationship is not affected. Furthermore they tend to reproduce the structure of conflicts and crisis within the couples relationship